Longitudinal Relationships Between Individual and Class Norms Supporting Dating Violence and Perpetration of Dating Violence

Abstract

Dating violence is commonly perpetrated in adolescence, making it imperative to understand risk factors in order to inform prevention efforts. Although individual norms supporting dating violence are strongly related to its perpetration, few studies have examined their longitudinal impact. Moreover, the influence of class norms (i.e., norms for students in the same grade, cohort, and school) supporting dating violence on perpetration has rarely been studied. The current study examined longitudinal relationships between individual and class norms supporting dating violence and perpetration of physical and psychological dating violence. Participants were two cohorts of sixth graders from 37 schools who were in dating relationships at Wave 1 and 6 months later at Wave 2 (N = 2,022; 43% female; 52% African American, 21% Latino/a, 20% White, and 7% other). The analyses used a multilevel approach, with students represented at Level 1 and classes (n = 74) at Level 2. The models tested direct effects of Wave 1 individual and class norms supporting dating violence on subsequent changes in perpetration of dating violence at Wave 2 and the extent to which gender moderated these relationships. The findings indicated that greater individual norms supporting male dating violence predicted greater change in perpetration of physical and psychological dating violence and greater individual norms supporting female dating violence predicted greater change in perpetration of psychological dating violence. Greater class norms supporting male dating violence predicted greater change in perpetration of physical dating violence; whereas greater class norms supporting female dating violence predicted less change in perpetration of physical dating violence. These findings highlight the need to address norms in early adolescence.

Perpetration of Adolescent Dating Relationship Abuse: The Role of Conditional Tolerance for Violence and Friendship Factors

“…Contrary to the study hypothesis, these analyses did not support prior evidence of the role of social learning in ADA (Tschann et al, 2009) and young adult IPV outcomes (Tyler, Brownridge, & Melander, 2011), likely related to social norms tolerating ADA (Taylor et al, 2015). Reports of friends’ intentional physical violence were not associated with ADA perpetration by either male or female daters.…”

Bystander Action in Situations of Dating and Sexual Aggression: A Mixed Methodological Study of High School Youth

“…Researchers are increasingly recognizing the critical importance of preventing dating and sexual aggression among youth (Reyes and Foshee 2013;Taylor et al 2015;Vagi et al 2013), and the critical role that bystander action plays in the prevention of such aggression (Noonan and Charles 2009). The current study sheds light on the situations in which youth have the most opportunity to intervene in situations of dating and sexual aggression, barriers (e.g., not knowing the victim) and facilitators (e.g., perceiving the victim may be injured or seriously hurt) of dating and sexual aggression bystander action, and both promising (e.g., notifying a parent or teacher) and problematic (e.g., use or threat of physical violence) ways of intervening in dating and sexual aggression situations.…”

Risk and Protective Factors for Sexual and Dating Violence Victimization: A Longitudinal, Prospective Study of Latino and African American Adolescents

“…In this case, spending a lot of time with a violent-prone sister could expose youth to the sister’s deviant friends, who then serve as potential offenders. It is also possible that youth learn to tolerate different forms of violence as a result of spending time with a violent-prone sister, which could increase their role as victim (Taylor, Sullivan, & Farrell, 2015; Ulloa et al, 2004). As a whole, study findings suggest that early indicators of a risky lifestyle, that is, already engaging in risk behaviors and having high-risk siblings and friends during early adolescence is associated with a greater likelihood of later victimization.…”